Books like Taproot — picked by fans

“Doors are very powerful things. Things are different on either side of them”’

I love this quote. There’s nothing like the threshold of a door when it comes to story magic! It’s steeped in tradition since long before Roman times. And Diana Wynne Jones is the underrated Queen of this whimsical genre. Her words flow so beautifully, and not only that, her characters are the cutest. I fell in love with Calcifer, the little fire demon, and the headstrong Sophie. 

Right off the bat, Darius jumps off the page as a real teen with relatable problems.

He’s the quiet kid at school, who the others tease. And he suffers from clinical depression. What I loved was how well Khorram tackled depression’s subtleties.

I think there is a tendency for society to see depression as this overarching dark cloud that keeps us in bed 24/7. But the truth is, many people who are suffering, are functional.

From the outside, we don’t see the building up of little moments that act like a snowball gradually expanding as it rolls down the mountain face.

Be warned – the food descriptions are amazing, so you might get hungry during the read.

If you’re a kindred spirit who’s never read this book, now is the time. This is an empowering story about defining oneself despite the small boxes that others attempt to place us in. It is the tale of setting out to find yourself and living the life you want.

As a plus, Montgomery’s unequaled descriptions of the natural world of Ontario’s Muskoka region are a balm and respite. I never tire of returning to this novel because I love the personal growth of the heroine, Valancy Stirling, the unexpected twists and turns, and Montgomery’s dry humor and beautiful prose. 

I reread The Witness for the Dead at least three times in the first months after I got my hands on it and have bought it in both physical form and ebook. This is a great secondary world fantasy and murder mystery. It’s on this list because of the portrayal of Thara Celehar as a man struggling with depression, haunted by past trauma and the bleakness he expects of his future while carrying on doing his duty by those who depend on him, combined with his unfailing mixture of wisdom and kindness and his awkwardness in accepting kindness and friendship in return, is so beautifully done. I can tell that this is going to remain one of my comfort reads forever.

A thinly veiled discussion about depression, The Girl on the Red Pillow does something I never thought possible: make depression humorous and interesting. Well...it doesn't actually make depression humorous but allows for humor to exist in a story about the topic.

From the first moment you get to meet the wall building dwarf, to the final moment when Annalee finally comes to terms with her depression and looks toward the future, you will be urged forward as you hope Annalee finds the answer to her troubles, especially if you're someone who has dealt with their own wall-building dwarf.

This book is a beautiful, inspiring weaving tale of a psychiatrist who has recurrent depression and has worked with people with depression. She doesn’t disguise how hard depression is, she doesn’t patronise, she explains depression from her personal point of view, explores what happened in her childhood, and explains a clinician’s point of view of depression. 

It’s embedded with bucket loads of empathy, compassion, and hope. You hear about the patients she’s helped and you come out feeling humbled and grateful for her telling her story. Very useful for professionals working in psychiatry and mental health but equally useful for those of us with this terrible illness.

This book isn’t specifically about depression, but it helped me with my depression so, so much. Much of my depression was based on thinking I had to get people to like me, I had to accomplish so much, I had to… But this book reminded me in powerful ways that it’s not about what I do. It’s about what Jesus has already accomplished. This book will help with a lot of the “other things” that can make depression worse, so you can work directly on depression without having to worry about other spiritual pressures. 

This book focused on three stories from women who experienced postpartum depression in varying degrees. Through the stories, it raises awareness about various degrees of postpartum depression and the spectrum of symptoms. The stories are raw and emotional. And yes, I cried through many parts of the story.

The title refers to how we try to hide from the realities of parenting by wearing smiling masks even when we are depressed. A must-read for ANY parent – any gender, any experience level.

This isn’t a traditional travel book and not a traditional memoir about depression, but a combination of both. Her journey to Antarctica becomes a metaphor for her mental health struggles throughout her life, starting from childhood. 

What I love about this book, and her writing in general, is the dark humour, her acerbic observations and true understanding of how paralysing and perilous depression can be. She understands how painful depression is, the depths it can take you to and seeing your own darkness reflected by someone else is both comforting and validating.

We’re all broken in so many ways. This book presents a number of letters to different kinds of broken people. Have you been rejected? Are you scared? Are you alone? There are letters here that will touch your heart. They touched mine! I found someone who could speak poetry into my darkness and make me know that I was not alone. Reynolds also points to real hope, so that even in darkness, I could see a shining light.